Walk in the park for the pair in red

Michael Schumacher has made Albert Park his home. In an effortless display yesterday he scored his fourth victory from the nine races that have been held there, with Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello posing the only serious challenge.

Their cars finished first and second - just as they did in 2000 - and only the Renault of 22-year-old Spaniard Fernando Alonso stayed within sight of the Ferraris to claim third place.

The expected challenge of the Williams BMW and BAR Honda teams did not materialise; Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya ran wide and into the grass on the first lap and dropped away from the leaders before finishing a distant fifth, and teammate Ralf Schumacher was fourth but never challenged Alonso.

BAR Honda's Jenson Button ran fourth for much of the race and, after being passed by Montoya just after half distance, dropped away to finish sixth. Renault pilot Jarno Trulli claimed seventh, while Button's teammate Takuma Sato was never in the hunt and finished ninth.

Talk of the McLaren Mercedes team being in trouble started on Friday and was well founded. Kimi Raikkonen, who finished second to Schumacher in last year's championship, pulled out after only eight laps with engine failure.

"We lost water pressure [in the cooling system] and the engine temperature came up," he said.

When quizzed about the team's poor performance in qualifying - he was 10th and teammate David Coulthard was 12th in the 20-car field - Raikkonen said: "We were not expecting to be 10th and, for sure, it is disappointing when we should be fighting for first place."

Coulthard fought on to take eighth but suffered the indignity of being lapped by the Ferraris.

"It has really been an unsatisfying weekend for us and the one [championship] point we achieved is a very small consolation," he said.

Team boss Ross Dennis added that "to say it was a difficult weekend would be something of an understatement. Our poor performance was amplified by the low ambient temperatures, which certainly didn't favour any of the Michelin runners [Ferrari uses Bridgestone tyres].

"We believe we have an understanding of the areas which need to be improved and only a careful analysis and a team-driven recovery plan will resolve our problems," he said, using the style of hyperbole for which he is famed.

Schumacher was obviously elated, saying: "We knew we would be strong here, but we didn't anticipate being that strong."

The only problem he had was with slower drivers trying to be too helpful when being overtaken. Schumacher said some had slowed unexpectedly to let him pass, rather than just moving over, causing some anxious moments.

And when quizzed on whether he was finding it difficult to maintain motivation after such an easy victory, he replied: "I enjoy what I am doing and if you get a result like this, I am excited.

"It is not hard to be motivated. We have the best team, a fantastic atmosphere - and it is Ferrari. I love the sport and I love the fighting on the circuit, it is natural to me. As long as it is enjoyable I will do what I can."

Only Barrichello took the fight to Schumacher, hounding the German in the opening laps and forcing such a pace that the rest were literally left out of sight. But a brake problem meant the Brazilian had to ease his pace, allowing Schumacher to open up a buffer that at times was close to half a minute.

"We were doing really good times and it was exciting to start with," said Barrichello. "There was a chance of overtaking.

"But coming up to the time of my second pit stop I had a problem; it was as if the brakes didn't cool down during the stop. After that the pedal [movement] was really long, so if I continued to push I would have gone off for sure."

Buoyed by his ability to stay on Schumacher's pace while his car was strong, Barrichello said he believed this could be his year.

"We have to wait and see, but this is my best shot at the championship," he said. "I have learned each year. Today I had a very good race until that time with the brakes. Of course, when you have equal cars it is more difficult to overtake, but I could push him very hard to see if he would make a mistake."

Alonso confessed to having had a lonely race. "From the first lap it was impossible to keep behind Rubens and there was no-one in my mirrors, so I did 58 laps like that," he said. "I slowed down near the end because there was 30 seconds to Rubens and 20 seconds to Jenson."

Although Ralf Schumacher and then Montoya passed Button towards the finish, Ralf was never in a position to challenge Alonso. Michael Schumacher responded to Alonso's easing pace by cutting his own speed and running comparatively conservatively to the finish.

Alonso had been forced off the track by Montoya going in too hot at the first corner, but Montoya also went off and dropped back while Alonso had only a momentary setback.

Alonso said he was very pleased with the result and the power of the Renault engine, and revealed there were two or three upgrades planned to increase its performance during the European part of the season.

Only 14 of the 20 starters were classified as finishers in the race, which was watched by a crowd officially estimated at 121,500.

The next round of the 18-race championship will be in Malaysia in a fortnight.